Dolfan Radio | Week 1 Preview
By Brad Michaels • September 11, 2026
We already wrote the year. This is just Sunday. Allegiant, 1:25 Pacific, FOX, two new staffs trying not to look new, and a total hanging at 40.5 because nobody in either building has given the public a reason to believe they can score.
If Miami cannot even compete here, the floor is real. I said that on September 2 and I still believe it. This is not San Francisco next week and it is not Mahomes walking into Hard Rock the week after. This is Las Vegas, at home, with Kirk Cousins under center and Ashton Jeanty listed as a question mark. It is a football game. Try not to make it a referendum before the anthem.
Sunday, Sept. 13. Allegiant Stadium. 4:25 p.m. ET / 1:25 p.m. PT. FOX.
Raiders −3.5. Total 40.5. Miami moneyline around +150 to +160. One of the lowest totals on the Sunday card.
Not yet. Friday’s injury stamp first. Then a score.
Klint Kubiak’s first game as a head coach, which means everybody on that sideline will be a little loud and a little careful at the same time. Kirk Cousins is starting. Fernando Mendoza, the No. 1 pick in the draft, is not. That was the plan in July. It is not a late panic and it is not a referendum on the kid before he has taken a regular-season snap. The last six quarterbacks taken first overall started opening day. Mendoza is the first to sit since Baker Mayfield in 2018. Fine. Write about Mendoza when he is in the game. If Cousins gets hurt, we will have a different afternoon. Until then he is the backup, and Sunday is about the guy who is actually taking the snaps.
Ashton Jeanty rolled the ankle in camp on August 23. Vegas kept him off injured reserve, which tells you they think this is a week thing and not a month thing. Kubiak has spent two weeks saying he is optimistic, he is counting on him, he is on the mend — coach-speak for “please stop asking me before they have to write it down.” As of Tuesday he still had not been a full practice body. Wednesday and Thursday are practice reports. Friday at 4:00 p.m. ET is Out / Doubtful / Questionable. That is when the score goes on this page. If he plays, it will be a managed workload and Mike Washington will still get some. If he sits, Washington and Dylan Laube are the backfield, and that 40.5 total starts to look like the most honest number on the board.
Brock Bowers is the problem. You can talk yourself into a young corner room all August. You cannot talk yourself past Bowers on a Sunday in September. Hafley still called the safety group a competition. Believe him, and then watch what Bowers does to the competition. Vegas’s hole is the edge: Keyron Crawford, the third-rounder, is done for the year. Miami’s hole is the other side of the ball, which is less convenient.
Last year’s Raiders scored 14.2 points a game. Dead last. That is why the total is sitting down there with the furniture. Cousins to Bowers can lift it. Jeanty staying home would drop it. Either way, nobody should be walking into Allegiant expecting a track meet.
Jeff Hafley. Bobby Slowik. Malik Willis. De’Von Achane as the offense. I keep writing that sentence because the building keeps living it. Nothing that happened on the wire in September changed the order.
Jaylen Wright is the listed No. 2. Ollie Gordon II is coming off ribs and may or may not be a Sunday body. Will Kacmarek — the third-round tight end they took to help the run game — has not practiced since the Giants preseason game on August 22. Hafley said Monday that everyone on the active roster would work. Kacmarek was with a trainer on a side field during stretching, which is a very particular kind of “everyone.” Miami’s first official report is Wednesday too. If you still have a bookmark open to a page with Jaylen Waddle and Minkah Fitzpatrick on it, close the tab. Those guys do not work here anymore.
Kenneth Grant is on injured reserve through the first four. Storm Duck and Darrell Baker Jr. are on PUP through the first four. The secondary you take to Allegiant is the one we already named: Chris Johnson, JuJu Brents, Jason Marshall Jr., Reese Taylor, Marcellas Dial Jr., and a safety group that is still auditioning for each other. Bowers will grade that room whether we like the curve or not.
The preseason was 0–3. Seven–twenty in Washington, three–twenty-six against the Giants, twelve–seventeen against Atlanta. That tape is a warning about the offensive line and the young receivers. It is not a scouting report on Willis. He did not play enough in those games for anyone to pretend they learned something profound. You learn it on Sunday, when the clock is real and the protection has to last longer than a cameo.
| Miami | Las Vegas | |
|---|---|---|
| Coach | Jeff Hafley, Year 1 | Klint Kubiak, Year 1 |
| QB1 | Malik Willis | Kirk Cousins |
| QB2 | Kyle McCord | Fernando Mendoza |
| Feature back | Achane. Wright next. Gordon a question. | Jeanty a question. Washington next. |
| The problem | Line. Young receivers. Bowers vs the secondary. | Edge without Crawford. Whether Jeanty is real on Sunday. |
Miami’s path is the run and the edges, and I do not mean that as a slogan. Slowik wants a run game that is not a suggestion you make on first down and abandon on second. Achane has to touch the ball until somebody in silver actually stops him. Willis’s legs are part of that, not a gadget they pull out when the script dies. If the first two drives go nowhere and Willis is throwing from a pocket that is shrinking in real time, the afternoon gets small in a hurry. We have all sat through that movie.
Chop Robinson is the other half. Year 3. Hafley already said he needs to become a complete player, which is coach for “please be more than a third-down idea.” Sunday is not a scheme seminar. Sunday is whether Chop wrecks a protection Cousins is trying to time up with Bowers. If he does it once, you will feel the building lean. If he never gets home, you will feel that too.
Vegas’s path is simpler and ruder: Cousins to Bowers, and whether Jeanty is actually out there. If both backs play and both lines hold up, this looks like a one-score game that makes you check the clock in the fourth quarter. If one of them sits, the total was telling the truth the whole time. It is indoors. Nobody gets to blame the wind. Two staffs installing in public, which is a polite way of saying somebody is going to look lost for a series and we will all pretend we saw it coming.
Not yet. I am not putting a score on a game until Friday’s report says who is actually dressing. Jeanty’s ankle is the first thing that changes the math. Willis being himself is the second. If Jeanty is Out or Doubtful, Miami can steal this. If he is playing, Vegas is still at home laying a field goal for a reason.
I think Miami competes either way. A win on the 13th would be the first chance to take 1993 out of the featured slot, and I would be happy to do that work. A competitive loss does not change the 4–13 weather report. A collapse would. Watch the first two drives before you watch the box score. That is where this team usually tells you what kind of day you are in for.
Practice reports Wednesday and Thursday. Game status Friday, 4:00 p.m. ET. The score goes up after that.
Where do you have it? And which of those five things has to go right so this does not feel like the start of a long year? Leave it in the comments. I will be there after the game.